Mom Sees Baby In Ultrasound And Thinks It's Blowing A Bubble, Then Doctors Explain It

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Michelle Shreeve 2/6/2017

Expecting moms love taking trips to the doctor to find out about their baby's progress with an ultrasound. Not only does it give them a chance to peek in on their little one, but oftentimes an ultrasound provides reassurance that their baby is healthy, and that everything seems to be on schedule.

However, there are some things mothers do not want to see during an ultrasound, such as what was discovered in the following story...

Tammy Gonzalez, an expecting mother from Miami, Florida, was excited for her baby to arrive. She already started planning for the big day, and everything was running smoothly with her pregnancy... that was until she visited her doctor for an ultrasound.

During the ultrasound, the doctor and Tammy noticed something abnormal in her womb. They spotted what looked like a giant bubble, as if Tammy's baby was blowing bubbles inside her tummy. Tammy asked her doctor, "Is that on me, or the baby?" The doctor wasn't sure at first, so did some research.

The bubble they were seeing on the ultrasound clued the doctor in to what it could have been. In a lot of other cases, the bubble was what is known as a teratoma. A teratoma is a rare and often times fatal tumor that can impact 1 in 100,000 births. The doctor wanted to be absolutely certain that's what it was, before telling Tammy.

Sadly, the doctor was eventually able to confirm that the bubble was indeed a tumor. When the news was given to Tammy, she was advised to terminate her pregnancy immediately, for fear that the baby would not survive the birth.

As any determined mother would do, she refused to terminate her pregnancy, despite finding out the news of what the bubble was. Tammy wanted to give her baby a fighting chance, and proceeded with the pregnancy against the doctor's advisement. Tammy told ABC News:

"They told me that type of tumor can grow so fast. I said, 'There must be something we can do.'"

While researching alternative ways to help her baby survive, Tammy and a group of doctors stumbled upon an endoscopic surgery procedure that could possibly help remove the tumor while the baby was still in her womb. Although the procedure had never been attempted in terms of what Tammy's baby was diagnosed with, Tammy decided to take a chance in the hopes that it would save her daughter's life.

She found a doctor who was willing to perform the procedure, Dr. Ruben Quintero, director of the Fetal Therapy Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He made a quarter inch incision in Tammy's abdomen, and was able to fit surgical tools and a tiny camera to conduct the procedure. Tammy was awake during the whole process.

"I couldn't feel the incision because of the local anesthetic, but I could feel the tube going into the sac. It felt like a popping balloon."

Dr. Quintero found the tumor, and showed Tammy everything he was doing. In fact, she was able to see, via the camera, the tumor being removed from her baby. As soon as the tumor was gone, and Tammy was reassured that her baby was still doing fine, she felt as if a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

A few months later, Tammy's daughter Leyna was born. Today, she has a mini scar, but other than that is developing and functioning perfectly normal.

Watch this video to see the full story.

Wow, what a happy ending to what could have been a much different story. What would you have done if you were in Tammy's position? Would you have handled it the way she did? Or would you have done something different?